Your Friendly Neighborhood Music Critic

Marrow – The Gold Standard

Hailing from Chicago, these 20-something kids now called Marrow were once in a pretty well known band, at least to the area of Chicago, known as Kids These Days, the group that also included rapper Vic Mensa and Social Experiment member Nico Segal, a.k.a. Donnie Trumpet. The remaining members, Macie Stewart, Lane Beckstorm, and Liam Cunningham, with their new addition, Matt Caroll, took the oppurtunity after Kids These Days’ disbandment to create Marrow, an indie rock group unlike anything they’ve ever tried before.

Though praised for their youth, and what they can create at such a young age, critique seemingly stems from their need for “work” or that they “haven’t found their sound just yet.” Contrary to that opinion, I actually really like the variance on The Gold Standard and that Marrow tackles a plethora of different genres and styles, kind of genre-blending as they go along through the record.

Opening track “She Chose You” is an easy indie rock, radio ready single, “Paulson” sounds influenced by The Cranberries, “Ocean of Glory” is a bit folk, their slower tracks seem a little Grizzly Bear influenced, and their vocal blending is even a bit Local Natives sounding at times. Similar critical opinions came to Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment’s Surf, that the record might have been a little all over the place and some songs seemed not completely developed, but while valid opinions, they weren’t aspects of the album that bothered me, but in fact completely the opposite. What did bother me was Kyle’s verse on “Wanna Be Cool.” But this isn’t about the appalling attempt to try and be kitchy by Kyle, it’s about how like their friend Donnie Trumpet, genre-bending and experimentation seem to be their strong suit and, for me at least, works to their advantage.